Gautam Raghavan, deputy director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, said in an email to Gustafson that she will be fired at 5 p.m. Friday after refusing to resign. Her term was supposed to end in 2023.
The Ethics & Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank, released a letter from Gustafson to the White House that said she had received a request for her resignation but chose to “politely “declined.
She wrote: “Over the past 25 years, I have confidently given this advice to countless clients in trouble: hold your head up high, do your job, and don’t resign under pressure.” “To stand with them, I will heed that advice myself.”
Republicans were quick to condemn the firing of Gustafson. Andrea Lucas, a Republican appointee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said it undermined Biden‘s call to stay united.
In a tweet, Andrea wrote: “I find the White House’s action today against our independent agency deeply troubling, breaking long-established norms for presidents of both parties, injecting partisan bias where there is little, and …… making a strong case for what ‘unity’ really means to this new president and his administration.”
Another Republican who denounced the move was Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, a senior member of the Education and Labor Committee (ELC). She issued a strongly worded statement calling for Gustafson’s reinstatement.
She wrote, “This has become a pattern. President Biden calls for an end to the ‘partisan war’ only to turn around and demand the resignation of a Senate-approved official to make room for his left-wing friends.”
Fox said, “This is an unprecedented firing of an honorable public official just hours after he was asked to resign. This dismissal was unfounded and should be rescinded immediately. General Counsel Gustafson should be reinstated so that she can complete her four-year term independently and free from politics.”
Prior to that, Peter Robb, general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), was also fired by Biden after refusing to resign voluntarily on Jan. 20. Robb was also a Trump appointee.
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